A Fairytale Life
by MeganRachel09
Summary: All human. Bella and Alice are best friends. When Alice's older brothers come home for summer, Bella starts to fall for Edward. What happens when secrets start to unfold? Used to be "Living A Romance" but, honestly, that title sucked. M for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

"Alice, I really don't see why we have to go shopping every freaking weekend," I whined as she opened the door to her house; mansion was more like it.

"Oh come on Bella," Alice rolled her eyes. "You can't honestly tell me that you didn't find that Hollister worker delicious."

"That was one guy at one store, Alice. You made me go into every single store in the freaking mall. He was the only cute guy anywhere in the entire mall," I pointed out, glaring slightly at her. "And you made me buy like four bags full of clothes that I'm never going to wear!"

We made our way into the family room of her huge house, dropping our heavy bags gratefully in the doorway. Inside the room, there were three guys looking up at us, waiting for Alice to notice them, but she was too busy arguing with me.

"There was that one guy at the movie theater place. He bought that ticket to see some movie. Remember him? He was hot," Alice grinned. "And you definitely are wearing those clothes."

"Yeah, I think I missed that guy," I said sarcastically. "When, exactly, am I going to wear the lingerie set that you bought me? Huh? Last time I checked, I didn't have anyone to wear it for!"

"I have foreseen a great romance in your future," Alice said imitating the voice of the fortune teller in Pirates of the Caribbean while dramatically placing a hand on her forehead. We both started laughing at our inside joke. Alice was such a freak; she seriously believed that she could see the future and I always made fun of her for it. "But Bella, seriously, you need to start dressing better."

"What's wrong with what I wear now?" I asked defensively.

Alice stared at me like I was stupid, still not noticing the three gorgeous boys sitting on her couch. "Bella. You're wearing a sweatshirt and jeans," she said in an obvious tone.

"And…?"

"Summer vacation just started! It's freaking almost a hundred degrees outside!" Alice exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air exasperatedly.

"Hey! This is my favorite sweatshirt! I'm attached to it!" I exclaimed. "And I like these jeans."

"Bella, they're baggy!" Alice rolled her eyes, placing a hand on her hips. Suddenly, her hand shot out and grabbed a hold of the hem of my worn sweatshirt and yanked it up, revealing my form-fitting tank top.

"Alice! What the hell?!" I shouted, jumping away from her hands and pulling my sweatshirt back down.

"Bella, you have a hot body. You need to flaunt it," Alice said, making me blush. I was fully aware that the eyes of all those guys were on me.

"Alice! I didn't know you were like that! I suddenly feel very uncomfortable about sleeping over tonight," I said sarcastically in an attempt to cover my embarrassment.

"Shut up, Bella. I was just saying," Alice rolled her eyes again. The number of times that pixie rolled her eyes astounded me.

My eyes subconsciously glanced over at the boys sitting on the couch, alerting Alice to their presence.

"Oh my gosh! Edward! Emmett! Jasper!" Alice squealed, running over to the couch and jumping on top of each one of them excitedly. I noticed that she lingered in the arms of the blond for a moment longer than either of the others. "Oh, Bella! These are my brothers Emmett and Edward and this is their friend Jasper. Guys this is my best friend, Bella! What are you guys doing here?!"

"Summer break," the blond said, smiling easily at her. I didn't miss the way they looked at each other and made a mental note to ask her about it as Jasper nodded to me in greeting. I smiled, already comfortable with him, and nodded back.

"Yeah, we college kids get out before you little high school children," the big, buff one, Emmett, said with a proud smirk, making me scoff. He noticed and narrowed his eyes at me, trying to look intimidating, I'm sure. "What's so funny?"

I smiled. "It's just that… you're so proud that you're in college and you got out early, yet where are you for your summer break? Partying it up with a bunch of drunk college kids? Oh, wait, no. You're here at your parents' house. With a couple of high school kids," I pointed out. "And we are already on summer break anyway, we got out early 'cause we're seniors!"

The third boy laughed easily, a natural sound that made my heart soar as I turned my attention to him. He smiled approvingly at me. "I applaud you. Not many people can put Emmett in his place. They're usually too intimidated by him," Edward said in a musical, velvety voice that had me smiling immediately.

"Intimidating? Emmett? Psh… I don't see what makes people think that," I said, looking Emmett up and down. "He totally looks like a teddy bear."

"We're going to go upstairs!" Alice exclaimed before anyone could say another word, running back over to my side and grabbing my hand, along with most of the bags and dragging me up the stairs to her room. She shoved her door open, dropping the bags just inside of it and letting go of my hand to shut the door as soon as I was inside.

"Okay. Spill," she said immediately, flinging herself across her bed and looking at me expectantly.

"About what?" I asked, looking at Alice like she was crazy.

"You and Edward," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You totally had a moment."

"He smiled at me and I smiled back?" I said. "Last time I checked, that didn't constitute a 'moment.' I think you've been watching too many romance movies."

"No I haven't Bella," Alice persisted, looking at me stubbornly. "When I said I foresaw a romance in your future, I was telling the truth. You and Edward are going to end up together."

"Alice, you're crazy. I don't think I've told you that often enough," I said bluntly, sitting at the edge of her bed and pulling my sweatshirt over my head. It was really hot in her room. When I stood back up to find a new shirt to wear, just to pacify my best friend, I felt her eyes on me.

"Okay seriously, if you're like… bi or lesbian or something, tell me now please because your staring is making me very uncomfortable," I said as I pulled out a cute blue shirt and threw it on.

"No! I'm straight, totally straight! I love boys!" Alice shouted.

"Yeah, tall, handsome blond boys who just so happen to be best friends with your big brothers?" I said casually, sitting down next to Alice, whose face paled.

"How did you know?" she whispered.

"You lingered," I shrugged. "It was pretty obvious."

"You don't think my brothers know, do you? I thought we were being so good at hiding it! We've barely even spoken in front of them and we…." Alice rambled, but I cut her off.

"Wait, you're going out with Jasper?" I asked in a hushed tone. Alice nodded. "And your brothers don't know?" she shook her head. "Shit. You don't watch too many romances, you're living one."

"I know," she sighed, then smiled sadly. "He's so sweet, but I know it hurts him, having to hide our relationship. It hurts me too."

"Then why don't you just tell them?" I suggested softly.

"I can't!" she wailed. "They're so protective of me! They wouldn't understand and it would ruin their relationship with my Jazzy."

"Alice, do you love him?" I asked.

"Yes," Alice answered pathetically.

"Then you need to tell your brothers. I mean, you can't get too serious if you're in a secret relationship. Like, if you want to marry him… which, I understand that's a very far-off prospect, but still… If you want to marry him eventually, you're going to need to tell your brothers," I said.

"Maybe not," she said desperately. "Like, maybe we could elope or something. Then they'd never know."

"Elope and what? Have a secret wedding, just the two of you? You know you don't want that. You want a huge wedding with all the attention on you," I said, quickly shooting down that plan. "And even if you did elope then what? You're going to come back and act like nothing ever happened? Go live separately like you are now? You could never have kids, you couldn't start a family. No, maybe you'd just move somewhere far away where your brothers would never find you. You think they wouldn't notice that you had disappeared at the same time as their best friend? You have to tell them."

"Why are we talking about eloping? I'm a senior in high school, okay? I don't have to worry about this for a good few years," Alice sighed. "Besides, I don't even know if Jasper really feels that way about me."

"Well have you ever talked about how you guys feel?" I probed gently.

"Yeah, but you know guys at this age. They'll say anything to get laid," Alice shrugged.

"Alice, if you really think that's all Jasper's in this for then maybe you should stop whatever you're doing," I said softly.

"But that's the thing, Bella. I don't know what I think. I know what I feel and what Jasper's told me he feels, but I don't know anything else," Alice whimpered, burying her head in her hands.

"Alright. I'm gonna go downstairs and I'll send Jasper up in a minute so you guys can talk about this, okay?" I said as Alice nodded weakly and laid back on her bed. I stood up and walked to the door and made my way down the stairs.

Standing at the foot of the stairs, I had a clear view into the living room, where Jasper was watching Edward and Emmett play video games. He looked up, seeing me there out of the corner of his eye and I gestured for him to go upstairs, but he just shot me a questioning look.

I started to gesture more openly for him to go upstairs, my hands almost flailing around my head. Edward looked up, his eyes locking with mine as my hands froze above my head and he looked at me questioningly. Thinking fast, I smiled and started doing the YMCA and then lowered my arms, shaking my head to myself as Edward chuckled at me.

"YES! I WIN!" Emmett shouted, jumping up from the couch excitedly as Edward turned his attention back to the television, groaning to see that Emmett had beaten him while he was distracted.

"That's not fair. Bella distracted me. She doing the YMCA, man," Edward protested.

"That sucks for you," Emmett said, gloating over the fact that he had beaten Edward at a video game. Then he turned his attention to me, grinning up at me. "So Bella, what is our darling little sister doing that has you so bored you decided to come do the YMCA for us?"

"She wasn't feeling too well and I'm in a good mood, so she told me to come down here so she didn't ruin my mood," I lied, looking at Jasper, who still looked confused.

"Does she want us to go talk to her?" Emmett asked, his voice laden with concern as Edward actually made to get up.

"No!" I exclaimed, walking over to Edward and putting my hand on his shoulder to keep him seated. "This isn't the sort of conversation she wants to have with her overprotective, big brothers," I said with a pointed glance at Jasper.

Jasper's mouth opened and he let out a little "Oh!" of comprehension. Emmett and Edward both turned to look at him. "Heh, I, uh, I'm going to the bathroom," Jasper said quickly, rushing towards the staircase and giving me a quick pat on the back as he passed me.

Once Jasper disappeared up the stairs, I realized that I still had my hand on Edward's shoulder, holding him down on the couch. I withdrew my hand quickly as if burned and took a few steps back, towards the door connecting the living room to the kitchen.

I turned around and walked into the kitchen, heading for the refrigerator which was usually pretty well-stocked with food I could cook. As I was looking for something to cook, Edward's face kept popping up in my mind and I found myself staring into space in the refrigerator.

"Are you lost in there or something?" A velvety voice asked from beside me, making me jump. I turned around to see Edward standing there, an amused expression on his face as he watched me stare into the depths of his fridge.

"No. I was just getting… this," I said, grabbing the first thing that my hand found in the refrigerator, which just so happened to be a bottle of beer. Edward looked at it and then at me, seemingly amused while I breathed out a laugh. "Actually, that's not what I was getting. I was going to get the ground beef to cook for dinner."

"You're cooking?" Edward asked, taking the beer from my hand and popping the cap off of it before taking a swig and making a sour face. "God. Even after a year of college and being dragged to frat parties by Emmett and Jasper, beer still has the most unappealing taste to me."

I laughed as he poured the rest of the bottle down the sink and got a glass out of the cabinet above it and filled it with water. He then turned back to me, smirking slightly.

"Why are you cooking again?" he asked, leaning against the edge of the sink as he gazed curiously at me. I turned to get the pack of ground beef out of the refrigerator as I thought of my reply.

"Someone has to make dinner," I said, turning around to place the meat on the counter. I could feel Edward watching me as I pulled the plastic wrap off of the ground beef package.

"And my mom couldn't do it because…?" Edward asked.

"Esme is out of town for the better part of the summer with Carlisle. Apparently your dad had some medical conference thingy that he had to go to," I said, glancing at Edward who looked genuinely surprised. "They didn't tell you?"

"No. They didn't," Edward shook his head before a smile lit up his beautiful face. "You know what this means, right? Party."

I don't know how they did it, but Emmett and Edward had a party planned barely an hour after they learned that their parents were out of town. I watched and listened, amazed as the brothers called number after number rattling off instructions on how to get to the house and details about the party. From what I gleaned from listening intently to Edward on the phone, people were bringing drinks and they could stay as long as they wanted as long as they didn't trash the place.

"First party?" Edward asked, grinning up at me after he hung up the phone and caught me staring at him.

I shook my head honestly, turning back to the stove where I was cooking the meat for dinner. I had been to a few parties when I lived with my mom in Arizona, but I had a not-so pleasant experience at the last one I attended and I hadn't been to one since.

"You just looked in awe at the process of calling and whatnot," Edward explained.

"Oh, no," I said. "You just seem to have a lot of people in that contact list of yours."

"You think this is a lot? You should see Emmett's. He's got almost a thousand people in there," Edward said, getting up and bringing his phone over to me as he leaned against the counter next to me. "I don't even talk to half of the people in here. Let's see, there's… Eric. You probably know him. He goes to school with you… or went to school with you."

I nodded my head. I did know Eric. He was a pretty nice guy, but he came across a little too strong. Too overly eager to help.

"Then there's…" Edward went through his list, naming a good few names that I recognized and even more that I didn't.

"Lauren? As in Lauren Mallory?" I asked at one point, unable to hide the obvious disgust in my tone as Edward turned to look at me, amused.

"That's the one," he answered.

"Oh man, I can't stand her. She's such a bitch to me," I said, shaking my head as I stirred the ground beef in the pot.

"I know she is," Edward said darkly. I raised my eyebrow at him curiously. "Ex-girlfriend," he shrugged.

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, dropping the spatula that was in my hand. "I just lost so much respect for you!"

"Hey, if it makes it any better, it was a very short lived relationship. Like three days or something like that. One date, that's all," Edward said. I continued to gape at him, still disgusted by this new discovery. "It was a dare, okay?"

I bust out laughing at that and lost my footing on the tile floor. I started to fall, clutching my stomach in laughter, and braced myself for an impact that never came. Edward had caught me and was holding me up, his hands on my waist.

When I was finally able to stop laughing long enough to talk, I pulled away from Edward. "Who dared you to go out with her?" I asked, still giggling.

"Emmett and Jasper," Edward muttered under his breath, looking away from me and rubbing the back of his neck in awkwardness. I wasn't sure if the awkwardness was from what had just happened or the fact that he didn't want to talk about Lauren anymore, so I just turned back to cooking.

"Speaking of Jasper, where is he?" Emmett asked from somewhere behind us and I jumped and turned around, my heart racing.

"I don't know. He went to the bathroom over an hour ago," Edward said, looking towards the living room as if to see if Jasper was in there. I felt my heart speed up and wondered what to do, how to keep them from finding out that he was in their little sister's room doing God knows what with her.

"I'm right here," Jasper said and relief washed over me as I turned to see him in the side door to the kitchen. He looked happy and only slightly disheveled. "I stopped to talk to Alice upstairs and was catching up on stuff at the high school. Apparently Mr. Banner still holds that grudge against you, Em."

"What grudge?" I asked, looking from face to face to proud face.

"Well, when I was just a little kid, your age, I guess," I rolled my eyes as Emmett started telling the story. "I had Mr. Banner for Biology and we had to dissect a frog for class, but I didn't want to do it because, I mean, those poor defenseless frogs never did anything to me. So I asked if I could be excused from the dissection, but he made me do it, saying that it was like an exam grade or something like that. Well, I didn't appreciate being made to do something that went against my morals and I took it to the principal, who agreed with me. So the principal told Banner that he couldn't make people dissect the frogs and he had to give us a choice. Well, as it turns out, I wasn't the only one that didn't like the idea of cutting into a poor little froggie. Almost the entire class decided to sit out the dissection process. I mean, it wasn't a big deal, but Mr. Banner always hated me for taking it to the principal and almost getting him in trouble."

"That's a boring story," I said when he finished. "No offense or anything," I added. "It's just that I was expecting to hear about some amazing prank that you pulled on him."

A wide grin lit up Emmett's face as he shared a secretive glance with Edward and Jasper. "Well, Bella, that is a story for another time," he chuckled.

**Hmmm… do you guys like it? I don't know if I do. But yeah, so reviews would be cool. If you want me to continue it, then tell me? And also, think of any cool pranks that Emmett could have pulled in Bio? Let me know. **


	2. Chapter 2

**So to answer a question I got about this: SillyLily619 mentioned that the guys should know Bella if they all went to high school together. **

**I guess I didn't mention in the first chapter that Bella just moved there a few months ago. So she never went to school with them. That will be explained in this chapter as well. **

**Oh and by the way… I don't own Twilight… Yet. **

Alice came downstairs shortly after Emmett's boring frog story just in time to eat with us before people started arriving for the party. When we told her about the party, she got indignant and wanted to invite some of her own friends.

"Alice, we don't want a bunch of high school kids crashing a college level party," Emmett groaned.

"Bella and I are high school kids," Alice pointed out angrily.

"You guys wouldn't happen to want to go out tonight, would you? Maybe spend the night at a friend's house?" Emmett asked hopefully.

"No!" we both exclaimed together, glaring at Emmett.

The argument carried on for at least fifteen minutes between Alice and Emmett while Edward, Jasper and I just chatted together about random things until Alice pulled Jasper into the argument.

"Right, Jasper?" she said after giving a long speech about how we were, after all, only a year younger than Edward and Jasper and two years younger than Emmett and our friends weren't going to ruin the party.

Jasper froze, looking from Alice to Emmett, unsure of who to side with. I could feel his uncertainty and definitely understood. It was a hard decision to make; siding with your best friend or your secret girlfriend. I knew which one he should choose; which one he would inevitably choose. After all, Alice would be able to punish him in ways that Emmett couldn't.

"Dude, I don't see why you don't let them come. I mean they're cool and all. You know they won't like freak out and ruin the party or anything," Jasper said uneasily, shrugging his shoulders as Alice beamed at him.

"Fine! You and Bella can stay at the party, but only because ya'll are already here. But you can't invite anyone else," Emmett reluctantly assented, glaring at Jasper who shifted uncomfortably.

"Come on, Bella!" Alice squealed, jumping up excitedly and grabbing my arm to drag me toward the stairs.

"Where are we going?" I asked wearily although I had an idea.

"To get ready," Alice answered as I groaned. Of course.

"How long is this gonna take?" I whined after a good hour of Alice playing Bella Barbie, making me put on shirt after shirt after shirt, pairing them up with skirts and shorts and pants galore. She finally decided on a tight, form-fitting white shirt that ended just above my belly button and a pair of form-fitting, dark blue jeans with plain white flats.

Alice had just finished slathering the make-up on my face when the door bell rang downstairs. We looked at each other, confused, since the party didn't start for at least another two hours and then walked to look out the window where we saw a familiar red BMW in the driveway.

I started beaming at the thought of my other best friend being here and, along with Alice, rushed to the bedroom door and down the stairs where we saw Emmett standing at the wide open door, gawking at the blond beauty that was Rosalie, my –our– best friend.

"Oh my God!" I shouted, flying to the door, accidentally jostling Emmett on my way to hug my friend. "Rose! What are you doing here?"

"Bella! Hey! I missed you so much!" Rosalie exclaimed, wrapping her arms tightly around me. "Well, you know, school is over and I'm coming to college over here with you, so I thought we should start our rooming together sooner rather than later. I went to your house and your dad said you were at Alice's so… here I am! Oh, by the way, hey Alice! I missed you!"

Alice, who had been bouncing in circles around us, jumped forward, squeezing herself in between Rose and me to pull Rose into a hug.

"Hey Rosalie!" she shouted.

"God, Alice, I'm right here. There's no need to scream!" Rosalie complained as she pulled away from Alice's enthusiastic embrace.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so excited! I haven't seen you since the last time you were here! When was that? Like a month ago?" Alice said extremely fast. Rosalie lived in Phoenix, which is where I used to live before I moved here and she was pretty much my best friend back there. She had come to visit me after I moved here and she and Alice had hit it off pretty well.

"Yeah. I would have come back sooner, but with graduation and all that I didn't have any time," Rosalie explained as she effectively ignored a drooling Emmett.

"Oh yeah, how did that go? I was number three in our class," Alice bragged proudly.

"Were you really, Alice? Because It's not like you've said it a million times since we graduated," I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I'm sorry that I'm proud of my scholastic accomplishments!" Alice whined. "And you should be doing a little more bragging than you are. I mean, you were the salutatorian."

"Ugh. Don't remind me," I groaned. "That speech was pure torture. Rosalie, weren't you the val?"

"Yep. I was first in my class," Rosalie said, flipping her hair behind her shoulders. "My speech went rather well, I thought."

"Yeah? Well you don't have a huge case of stage-fright like I do," I mock-glared at my best friend.

"As fun as all this school talk is and as amusing as it is to watch my brothers drool all over your guys' achievements, we have to finish getting ready for the party," Alice said sarcastically.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Brothers? I only saw Emmett there and he definitely only had eyes for Rosalie. I shrugged and turned around to go back up the stairs and came face-to-face with Edward.

"Oh. Hey," I stammered as Edward threw his hands out to catch me when my balance failed me… again. "I didn't know you were there."

"Yeah," Edward cleared his throat. "So… getting ready for the party?"

"Obviously. Yes," I smirked, gesturing to my half-made-up face and my straightened hair. "Alice is going crazy with the make-up and whatnot. Quite the effective torture."

"Shut up, Bella! Come on!" Alice exclaimed from the stairs, where she and Rosalie were staring down at me, waiting impatiently for me to join them.

I grimaced at Edward, earning a hearty laugh from him, and followed Alice and Rosalie upstairs.

"Alright, so tell me about this party we're attending here," Rosalie said as she sat herself down at the edge of Alice's bed, watching as Alice shoved me down into a chair and finished applying gobs of makeup.

"My brothers just came in town and when they found out that my parents are out of town, they decided to throw a party. Naturally," Alice rolled her eyes. "It's basically going to be a bunch of college kids. Emmett sort of banned us from inviting any high school kids."

"Dude, we should invite like everyone from the high school just to piss the boys off and when they ask… say we didn't invite them," Rosalie smirked.

"Yeah! And tell them all to say they just heard from someone else!" Alice giggled, pulling out her phone immediately and dialing someone's number.

"Alice! Wait! I don't think we should do this," I protested, unsure if we should do this.

"Oh come on, Bella. This isn't going to like kill them or their amazing party," Alice rolled her eyes at me as she lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Tyler?" she asked, winking at me. "This is Alice Cullen… Yeah, hi… No, we're having a little party at my house tonight and we thought you should come… Yeah, invite like everyone… Oh and Tyler? If anyone here asks… you heard about the party from some random girl, okay? Alright, thanks. See you later, Tyler."

"Alice, what the hell?" I whined. "You invited Tyler? He's going to be hitting on me all night now. Thanks a lot."

"God, Bella. Lighten up. Tyler's harmless, really. And he's one of the cutest guys in school. Seriously? You're lucky he likes you. There are so many girls that want him," Alice said seriously.

"Alice, how would your _secret boyfriend_ appreciate it if he heard you say that you think Tyler Crowley is really cute?" I asked, smirking as Alice went red and shrugged her shoulders.

"Wait, wait, wait. What's this about a secret boyfriend?" Rosalie demanded, whipping around to look at Alice and me.

"Our little Alice here is going out with Edward and Emmett's best friend," I said. "And they know nothing of it."

"Ooooooh juicy," Rosalie gushed. "Honestly Alice, I didn't think you had it in you to do anything like this. I'm quite impressed."

"Shut up, you guys," Alice whined. "Seriously, you are going to get us caught if you keep talking about it."

"I'm sorry, Alice," I said with a little smirk which was quickly wiped off my face when Alice decided to come at me with a tube of mascara.

An hour later, party-goers had started arriving and Alice, Rosalie and I were upstairs in Alice's room just sitting there. Both Rose and Alice thought that we should 'make a late entrance.' Apparently, that would make us look cooler…?

When we finally did make it downstairs and to the party, the first thing I noticed was that the high schoolers had started arriving as well and Edward had obviously been cornered by Lauren.

He was standing next to the piano as Lauren stood impossibly close to him. I chuckled to myself as I took in his facial expression; he looked annoyed and uncomfortable. Edward caught my eye and shot a pleading look at me and I sighed exaggeratedly before making my way through the throng of people to rescue him from Lauren's clutches.

"Hey there," a voice drawled from beside me when I was halfway to him and I turned my head to see a creepy-looking guy with blond hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. I nodded at him and tried to walk past him to get to Edward, but he pivoted so he was in front of me and I froze, looking at him questioningly.

"I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting," he said in a creepy voice. "I'm James."

"Bella," I said unwillingly, glancing behind him to see Edward glaring past Lauren at James' back. "Well, I have to go."

"Wait, will you dance with me?" James said, grabbing my wrist as I tried to sidestep him.

"I don't dance," I said, wrenching my wrist away from him and finally managing to get to Edward. I heard Lauren prattling on about something random and rolled my eyes, stepping up right next to Edward and wrapping my arm around his waist.

"There you are, Edward! I've been looking all over for you!" I said with exaggerated happiness. "You promised to show me around your house!"

Edward smiled down at me gratefully and wrapped his arm around my shoulder as I turned and pretended to notice Lauren for the first time.

"Oh hey Lauren," I said politely before turning my attention back to Edward and biting my lip seductively.

"Aren't you like best friends with Alice?" Lauren asked, rolling her eyes at me. "Wouldn't you have already seen the house?"

I smirked as I turned to look at Lauren and leaned a little closer to her as if to tell her a secret. "Well, I've seen most of the house, of course… but I've never really seen Edward's room," I pulled back and leaned into Edward's side as I smiled widely. "I think I'm going to get pretty acquainted with that area of the house."

Edward leaned down and brushed his lips along the nape of my neck and I giggled as Lauren glared pointedly at me.

"Would you like to go dance now, love?" Edward spoke softly in my ear and I turned my face toward him and nodded.

"I would love nothing more," I giggled as I allowed Edward to pull me away from Lauren and onto the makeshift dance floor which was already crowded with bodies.

As Edward pulled me through the throng of people, countless people called his name in greeting and he would either nod at them or say a quick word or two in response, never stopping as he continued to lead me away.

He didn't slow down until we were on the opposite side of the dance floor when he turned to look at me as he guided me through the crowded living room toward the couch. "Thank you so much," he said enthusiastically. "She was starting to really get on my nerves."

"And that is no easy feat to accomplish, right Edward?" I heard a familiar voice drawl and we turned together to see James standing there. I rolled my eyes slightly in annoyance, already disliking this James guy.

"Well, some people are just more annoying than others _James_," Edward said in an obviously forced polite voice. James didn't seem to catch the implication there, but I did and chuckled, which was a mistake and alerted James to my presence.

"Bella!" James exclaimed. "Hello again. Are you feeling up for a dance now?"

"No, not really," I said shortly, looking anywhere but at James, settling on glancing up at Edward, who looked back down at me. Apparently we were going to be pretending we were going out a lot tonight.

"My Bella here doesn't like to dance with anyone other than me," Edward said lightly, placing his hand back on my waist as I smiled up at him.

"It's just not the same with anyone else, you know?" I said with a forced smile in James' direction. James looked like he was going to take a step closer to me, but Edward pulled me further into his side and growled slightly.

"Yeah I get it. Oh hey I think I see someone over there. Bye," James said hurriedly, eager to get away from me and the threat that Edward posed.

"Down boy," I muttered under my breath as I turned to Edward, smiling slightly. "What's wrong?" I asked when I noticed the angry expression on Edward's face.

"It's just James," Edward said so softly I barely heard him over the music. "He's just not a good guy and I… we never really got along well. Could you do me a huge favor?"

"Sure," I said as Edward spotted Alice and Rosalie who were talking to Jasper and started to lead me toward them.

"Please just stay away from James whenever possible," Edward said seriously. "And if it's impossible to avoid him completely, just make sure you're not alone with him."

I shivered as I contemplated the possible meaning of his words and glanced up at him once more when we reached the small group that was our destination. His jaw was set in a determined fashion as he caught Jasper's eye.

"Hey bro, what's up?" Jasper asked, alerted by Edward's concerned expression.

"James is here," Edward said tersely.

"What?" Jasper said, immediately serious as he took an instinctive step closer to Alice, which made me wonder just how bad this James guy was. "Who invited him?"

"I don't know, man," Edward said. "It could have been anyone. I mean it's not like we made it seem like this party was limited to a select few people."

"Yeah but… Everyone knows that James hates us and we hate him right back," Jasper replied, his eyes scanning the room.

"I know, but that doesn't change the fact that he's here," Edward said. "Look, we just have to make sure that none of the girls are alone. At least one of us is with them at all times, okay?"

Jasper nodded his head in agreement as Alice, Rosalie and I looked on, utterly confused.

"Okay, is anyone going to let us in on what's going on here?" Rosalie finally snapped, annoyed that we all seemed to be out of the loop.

"Sorry…" Jasper said.

"It's just that James is known to be a bit aggressive when it comes to girls. He doesn't really take no for an answer and he definitely doesn't know how to treat a girl right," Edward answered, his eyes also wandering the room cautiously. "Hey do any of you know where Emmett is? We should let him know about James being here."

"I think he's in the kitchen with the drinks," Rosalie rolled her eyes.

"I'll go find him and let him know. You stay here with the girls, alright?" Edward said to Jasper, who nodded. He turned to go find Emmett, but not before I saw him glance swiftly between Jasper and Alice.

Once he was gone, Jasper pulled Alice into his arms protectively, his eyes still scanning the room for James.

"So… I think Edward knows," I said casually. Alice narrowed her eyes at me and Jasper turned his attention to me while Rosalie looked on, looking rather bored.

"Knows what?" Jasper asked nervously.

"About you two," I answered. Alice shook her head sharply, disagreeing with me, but I kept on talking. "I mean, come on. I've only known Edward and Emmett, and you too, Jasper, for a few hours, but I can tell that Edward's a really observant guy. I don't think it's slipped his attention that you probably tend to disappear together. Plus he definitely saw the way you angled yourself towards Alice when you heard James was here, Jasper."

"No. He doesn't know," Alice said, sounding sure of herself.

"Well would it be a bad thing if he did?" Rosalie asked, sounding confused.

"Yes!" Alice answered sharply. I didn't miss the brief wounded expression on Jasper's face before it was quickly replaced by a blank mask as he removed his hands from around Alice, his eyes looking at something behind me. "Both he and Emmett would go all over-protective big brother on me. Not a good idea."

"I don't know, Alice," I said carefully. "I mean, Jasper's their best friend. I'm sure they'd be happy it was at least someone they trusted."

"No, trust me, Bella. It's better that they don't know," Alice said adamantly.

"Know what?" Edward asked from behind me and I saw Alice freeze and turned slowly to see both him and Emmett standing there curiously.

"I have really bad cramps," I said quickly. "Alice said that you guys would freak out, but I don't see the big deal about it. I mean, every girl goes through it once a month. It's not too creepy."

"Right," Emmett said slowly, turning his attention to Jasper. "Have you seen him?"

"Not so far," Jasper answered. "He might have just decided to hit on some drunk girl. Apparently they comply more readily."

"How would you know?" Rosalie voiced the scathing question that I could tell Alice had been dying to ask.

"James has given us a few… tips… on how to score with girls," Edward said dryly, rolling his eyes.

"As if we need help, right boys?" Emmett said loudly, giving Jasper a high five and putting an arm over Edward's shoulders. "We can get any girl we want."

I stepped away from Edward and turned around to face the three boys, Alice and Rosalie on either side of me as we all crossed our arms in identical fashions and scoffed.

"That was such a guy thing to say," Rosalie spat.

"Seriously, what makes you guys any different from James if you say things like that?" Alice said heatedly.

"Idiots," I breathed, rolling my eyes as Jasper and Edward stepped away from Emmett quickly.

"I didn't say that. Emmett did!" Jasper was quick to defend himself with Edward nodding alongside him.

"Yeah. It was all him," Edward said, pointing at Emmett who looked scared as Rosalie stepped up in his face, looking intimidating.

"Such a loyal friend and brother," Emmett said sarcastically, looking at the blond bombshell in front of him. "I was kidding. I didn't mean it like that. I would never disrespect a girl like that."

"Suuuure you wouldn't," Rosalie said skeptically. "Because you're a nice guy. Right."

"Hey, seriously," Emmett said. "Look, I didn't mean anything by it, really. I just have a tendency to say whatever pops in my head, no matter how stupid it is. I seriously would never disrespect any girl intentionally."

"Rosalie, he's being serious. Emmett's a teddy bear, really. All talk," Alice said softly and Rosalie slowly stepped back.

"Well, that was quite the showdown. If James shows up, I'm sure Rosalie could just kick his ass for us and the boys wouldn't have to lift a finger," I said in an attempt to lighten the conversation.

"Actually I could. So you boys can go on and be boys. College boys. Drink, talk to girls. We don't care, right ladies?" Rosalie said, throwing an arm over my shoulders and one over Alice's.

"Nice try," Edward said. "But we aren't letting you out of our sight."

"But if you're wasting all your time on protecting us, how will you know if James is stalking some other poor, innocent girl?" I said with wide, innocent eyes.

"Why are you all trying to get rid of us?" Emmett asked suspiciously.

"We need girl talk time. Duh," Alice rolled her eyes at her brother.

"Well you can talk your girlie girl talk with us right here, can't you?" Emmett said, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"Fine," I shrugged as Rosalie, Alice and I lead the boys to the couch, where we all sat down, the boys standing right behind us. "So when you guys get your period does it sometimes like skip a day and then the blood flow comes back like tenfold? Because mine does that all the time."

"Oh my God," Alice groaned. "Yes! Mine does that each and every time. It's so annoying! It's like, come on, body, make up your mind, you know?"

"Yeah, it's like… My body can't decide if it wants to bleed or not. It's so fickle. I mean, I know girls are kind of indecisive when we're on our periods, but isn't that taking it a little far?" Rosalie added and we all rolled our eyes in unison.

"It wouldn't be as frustrating if, like, the other symptoms went away too, but no. The cramps, soreness and emotions remain. Infuriating," Alice sighed.

"Precisely," I agreed with a head nod. "So… do you think we creeped out the guys enough?"

"Maybe," Alice shrugged.

"I don't know. They aren't whining yet," Rosalie said as I heard a faint, sexy growl from behind me. I turned my head and saw Edward scowling at us while Jasper and Emmett just looked extremely uncomfortable.

For some reason, instead of feeling very freaked out that a guy had just growled at me, I found it hot. It was probably just because Edward was the one to do it and he was the sexiest man in the universe as far as I was concerned.

"Oh! I didn't realize you all were so close!" I said innocently, looking at the boys from under my eyelashes. Edward's face went carefully blank as Emmett scoffed.

For the next few hours, the boys continued to watch over us like we were about to be kidnapped at any moment and we girls kept on saying things trying to make them feel awkward. It wasn't that we didn't appreciate the fact that they were worried about us, it was more the fact that they were so easy to weird out.

When the party was over and we were sure that James was gone, the boys surprisingly still didn't leave us alone. Alice, Rosalie and I decided to have a movie marathon and the boys asked if they could join us.

As Alice popped the movie into the DVD player, I took a seat on one of the loveseats, more than a little surprised when Edward came and asked if he could sit with me. I nodded my head and scooted over to give him some room.

Rosalie took up a spot on the floor and Emmett plopped down a few inches away from her. She rolled her eyes, but I knew that inside she was really rejoicing.

Alice danced over to the couch as the credits started to roll and sat down next to Jasper, with a few inches separating them.

When I realized what movie Alice had picked out, I immediately stiffened and turned to look at her. She was smiling innocently at me and I let out a little whimper when the opening scene started to play.

"Are you alright, Bella?" Edward asked, leaning his head closer to me as I hugged myself and smiled tightly at him.

"Yeah," I whispered. "I'm just… I really don't like Saw. It freaks me out."

"Don't worry, Bella. I won't let the deranged psychopath get you," Edward smiled, wrapping a protective arm around my shoulder. Maybe this movie wouldn't be so bad.

**Ehhh so the end kind of jumped a lot. Like… time-wise, you know? I don't know if I really liked this chapter. But there's Rosalie. Haha. Someone commented me asking where she was. There ya go. Ha. But review, please? Yes. Thanks for reading! **


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